Pellet burners or stoves are becoming increasingly popular. Such burners typically use a biomass fuel in the form of a small pellet 1/4-3/8 inch in diameter and one inch in length which is made from waste of the timber industry. Such pellets typically have a heat value of approximately 8500 BTU's per pound.
Pellet burners have advantages over conventional wood burning stoves. One advantage is that substantially less emissions are produced by pellet burners than wood burners. Additionally, almost all pellet burning stoves meet environmental emissions standards and can be vented using conventional dryer-type exhaust hoses. Pellet burning stoves also typically achieve a much higher efficiency than conventional wood stoves due to a more precisely controlled air-fuel mixture ratio in the combustion chamber. Pelletized fuel is also cleaner and easily handled and does not generate the mess created by the handling of wood.
Pellet burner manufacturers continue to strive to increase the efficiency and ease of operation of pellet burning stoves. This invention relates to such improvements.
Although the invention arose primarily out of the needs and concerns in the biomass pellet fuel stove art, it will be apparent to those skilled in the heating art that the teachings of the invention may have applicability to the burning of other granular, pellet or similarly sized solid heating fuels.